Essential Dissent - Douglas Rushkoff - Program or Be Programmed

Radio Project Front Page Podcast

YouTube: https://youtu.be/mk4oXlq7tgY?si=6qkot5jgIpGMITqJ This episode is a talk by Douglas Rushkoff, in conversation with Marissa Feinberg. It took place at the Francis Kite Club in NYC on November 3, 2024. The Francis Kite Club is also the home of OR Books, which recently published an updated edition of Douglas Rushkoff’s book, “Program or Be Programmed.” https://orbooks.com https://www.franciskiteclub.com/menu According to the book’s blurb: Updated with a new section on the unique challenges posed by AI, Program or Be Programmed presents a spirited, accessible poetics of new media. The question is, do we direct technology, or do we let ourselves be directed by it and those who have mastered it? “Choose the former,” writes Rushkoff, “and you gain access to the control panel of civilization. Choose the latter, and it could be the last real choice you get to make.” In eleven “commands,” Rushkoff provides cyberenthusiasts and technophobes alike with the guidelines to navigate this new universe. --- And from Rushkoff’s bio: Named one of the “world’s ten most influential intellectuals” by MIT, Douglas Rushkoff is an author and documentarian who studies human autonomy in a digital age. His twenty other books include Survival of the Richest, Team Human, based on his podcast, Present Shock, and Throwing Rocks at the Google Bus. He also made the PBS Frontline documentaries Generation Like, The Persuaders, and Merchants of Cool. He won the Marshall McLuhan Award, as well as the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. He is director of the MA program in Media Studies at the City University of New York, Queens College Marissa Feinberg is the founder of Psychedelics for Climate Action.